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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 6, 2019)
PAGE 6 | December 6, 2019 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS UNION ORGANIZING McMinnville hospital nurses file for union election as safety worsens ATU 757 supporting our veterans ATU LOCAL 757 once again took part in the Port- land Veterans Day Parade hosted by Ross Holly- wood Chapel. Now in its 45th year, more than a dozen ATU members (most of whom are veterans) marched with hundreds of veterans and their families. They hoisted their union banner as they walked alongside their union-adorned mini-bus. The parade, which runs up Sandy Boulevard in the Hollywood District, honors all who have worn the uniform of the armed services. Others groups par- ticipating included the Royal Rosarians, several high school marching bands, military groups, first responders, scout troops and politicians. D-Day veterans Ben Asquith and Abe Laurenzo were this year’s grand marshals. JOBS Shipping returns to Portland’s Terminal 6 South Korea-based container carrier SM Line will be begin weekly container shipping service between Portland and China and South Korea starting January 2020, the Port of Port- land announced Nov. 19. Located on the Columbia River on the far northern tip of North Portland, Terminal 6 is set up with cranes to load and unload container ships. But it’s been largely idle since 2015, when Hanjin Shipping and Ha- pag Lloyd America ended reg- ular service. A slowdown by members of International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) was blamed for the pullout, but other factors increasingly make container shipping to Portland a challenge: To make it to Port- land, ocean-going ships must get through a difficult crossing at the mouth of the Columbia River and then travel 107 miles through a shipping channel that’s just 43 feet deep. The SM Lines ships that will stop in Portland can carry the equivalent of 4,500 20-foot containers, much smaller than the ultra-large vessels that are coming to be the standard for container shipping. The new larger ships carry the equiva- lent of 10,000, 15,000 or more 20-foot containers, but they re- quire a shipping channel that’s just under 50 feet deep. To lure SM Lines, Oregon Governor Kate Brown offered a public subsidy of $500,000 from the lottery-funded Strate- gic Reserve Fund, the Oregon- ian reported. It’s not the first time the fund has been tapped for shipping: In 2017, Swire Shipping was given a $250,000 incentive to begin serving the terminal once every 35 days, but it ended service earlier this year. CULTURE In 1900s Portland , child labor was real … and awful Susan Stoner, retired former at- torney at Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757, has just pub- lished the eighth in a series of closely-researched historical detective fiction novels set in the Portland of the early 20th century. The series, written un- der the pen name S.L. Stoner, follows fictional trade union operative Sage Adair. The latest installment is en- titled Bitter Cry, and brings to life the issue of child labor. It’s populated by fictionalized ver- sions of real-life figures like Portland mayor Harry Lane, an anti-corruption reformer, and Millie Trumbull, a progressive activist who campaigned against child labor and served as the Oregon Child Labor Commission’s first staff person and inspector. The book’s title is taken from The Bitter Cry of the Children, a 1906 book that exposed child poverty and mal- nourishment and horrific con- ditions among child laborers. Stoner will be selling and signing the book at the Oregon Historical Society’s annual book event for Oregon authors Sunday Dec. 8 from noon to 4 p.m. at 1200 SW Park Ave. She’ll also be interviewed about the book on KBOO’s La- bor Radio program Monday, Dec. 30 from 6 to 6:30 p.m., broadcast at 90.7 FM in Port- land and online at kboo.fm. And she’ll give a talk and read- ing from the book Thursday, Jan. 16 at 7 p.m. at Powell’s Books on Hawthorne, 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd. The book and the series are available online via union-represented Pow- ells.com as well as Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Nurses at Willamette Valley Medical Center in McMinnville are campaigning to form a union. After organizing with the Ore- gon Nurses Association (ONA) for the past year, on Nov. 22 they asked the National Labor Rela- tions Board to hold a union elec- tion. ONA says more than 131 nurses signed union authoriza- tion cards —about three-fourths of the hospital’s roughly 175 nurses. Situated off Oregon Route 18 across from Chemeketa Com- munity College, Willamette Val- ley Medical Center is a 60-bed acute-care hospital that includes an emergency room, a birthing center, and a cancer center. It’s also one of just two for-profit hospitals in Oregon. ONA says safety has dropped dramatically at Willamette Valley since the hospital was acquired by Tennessee-based LifePoint Health last year. The Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit health indus- try watchdog group, rated Willamette Valley Medical Cen- ter the worst out of 31 Oregon hospitals for safety, giving it a “D” grade in its Fall 2019 report. That’s down from an “A” grade as recently as Spring of 2018. One of the factors in the re- port: Not enough qualified nurses. “We need a strong, collective voice to advocate for our patients and improve safety throughout the hospital,” said Willamette Valley nurse Corey Mertz in a union press statement.
